Here's the nuts & bolts of the experience:
Quote:
Curiosity is set in a virtual room that contains a single black cube. As you tap away at it it fractures. Other fractures caused by other players can also be seen. After a large number of taps the cube opens, revealing its innards. Only the player who performs the final tap gets to see what's inside.
22 Cans will then record and study how news of what's inside spreads across social media in an attempt to explore the psychology of social media users.
But before the cube opens, players will be able to buy one of a limited number of chisels to improve their tapping strength. An iron chisel - 10 times more powerful than the default tap - costs 59 pence. The diamond chisel is 100,000 times as powerful - but it costs $50,000, and there is only one available.
22 Cans will then record and study how news of what's inside spreads across social media in an attempt to explore the psychology of social media users.
But before the cube opens, players will be able to buy one of a limited number of chisels to improve their tapping strength. An iron chisel - 10 times more powerful than the default tap - costs 59 pence. The diamond chisel is 100,000 times as powerful - but it costs $50,000, and there is only one available.
Molyneux wrote:
But the reason I'm charging for the chisels is as a proof point on that motivation. Is the simplest form of motivation in the world - what's in the box? - sufficient to ask people to invest money in it? That's going to be a fascinating experiment.
Personally, I think Molyneux is vastly overstating how fascinating this experiment will be (from what's been revealed thusfar). The psychology of social media use has been explored deeper, and in more thought-provoking ways elsewhere. I get the feeling that Molyneux is asking questions we already know the answers to.
I suspect that some people will put money into the game, and some won't. For those that do, the amount that they put in will be related to how disposable their income is. There are people rich enough to throw $50,000 around without a second thought. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if someone plunked that cash down, whether it be as a donation to Molyneux, a PR move, or for the lulz.
...and that's basically it. I don't see it getting much deeper than that. I don't see what's supposed to be fascinating here.
Amusingly, though, Ian Bogost went and stole some of Molyneux's thunder, implementing the idea into his extant game Cow Clicker (a satire on Farmville's skinner box). And since Bogost is open and clear about his game's message, and does it with some humor, I find his take much more interesting. Molyneux's words on his own game just strike me as pretentious.
What'cha think? Anyone here gonna click the cube? It comes out on August 22.
Edited, Jul 6th 2012 12:57pm by Eske
